BY RUSS GERMAIN – FAN FUEL BLOGGER
(Part four in a four part series on the lack of respect the CFL gets compared to the NFL)
In the final part of my series we will look at offensive lineman Brian Waters from the New England Patriots. This guy is one of the premier O-linemen in the NFL, playing since 2000. Waters has enjoyed a very fine career with five Pro Bowl appearances mostly with the Patriots.
He stands at 6’3” and weighs in at 320lbs and if you take a good look at him he does have an overly large body frame. Here is a prime example of a star lineman in the NFL who would not be able to play in the CFL. With all of the Canadian teams running offensive plays that require offensive linemen to roll out in order to protect the quarterback, Brian Waters would have a difficult time being able to accomplish this task. Hewould need an agile body to move up an entire yard in order to make contact with his block and then drive him into the defensive backfield.
Linemen in the two leagues are bred different if you want to put it this way with the typical NFL offensive lineman dealing with the Nose Tackle being inches away and having contact upon the snap of the ball. Then you have the Canadian offensive lineman who has the benefit of the one yard from the line of scrimmage which gives him a definite advantage when defending against his opponent.
Now experts could argue for hours on end which player has the advantage here but when you look at the average size of a starting offensive lineman in the CFL they do tend to be more around the 260 lb mark while Waters like many other NFL lineman are at or above the 300 lb range. In order to make the CFL, Waters would likely need to slim down 50 lbs at least before he’d be quick enough to take on the responsibilities given to a Canadian lineman.
Let’s take a look at five NFL linemen and their weight.
David Bass – NY Giants, 312 lbs.
D’Anthony Batiste – Arizona Cardinals, 314 lbs
Brian Waters – New England Patriots, 320 lbs
Rodney Hudson – Kansas City Chiefs, 299 lbs
Jah Reid – Baltimore Ravens, 335 lbs
Now when you look at these players, I cannot honestly think that any of these five would be able to play in the CFL as they’re just too big and too slow to be able to handle the duties that a lineman in the CFL would be able to do.
Now, five CFL linemen and their weight.
Brian Ramsey – Edmonton Eskimos, 298 lbs (but this guy is 6’7” so for his weight he’s not that big)
Patrick Neufeld – Saskatchewan Roughriders, 291 lbs
Scott Flory – Montreal Alouettes, 296 lbs
Glenn January – Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 297 lbs (again he is 6’6” so not exactly a big guy weight wise)
Simeon Rottier – Hamilton Tiger-Cats, 295 lbs (he too is 6’6”)
So these are five starting linemen from both leagues and you can see a trend where the average size of these players are pretty different. Now if you really want a good comparison, Patrick Kabongo who is with the Edmonton Eskimos was told to slim down or lose his job and he managed to lose 70 lbs. He even said that he felt quicker and a lot more capable than when he was in the high 300 lbs.
I hope that this four-part blog has given you some helpful information and maybe some new respect for the Canadian Football League. There are different players designed for different leagues, not everyone who plays in the NFL is going to be a CFL star (whether they want to or not) and there are a lot of American players who just aren’t right for the National Football League but it’s not because they are rejects, it’s because they just might be better suited for the Canadian version of football.